Flying Scotsman to launch Edinburgh film fest

The 60th Edinburgh film festival will kick off with the world premiere of The Flying Scotsman, a homegrown Scottish production starring Jonny Lee Miller, Brian Cox and Billy Boyd. Directed by Douglas Mackinnon, the film is a biopic of cyclist Graeme Obree, who broke the world one-hour record on a customised bike made from parts from a washing machine.

Other films on show at this year's event include the eagerly anticipated Art School Confidential, the second collaboration from the Ghost World pairing of director Terry Zwigoff and writer/cartoonist Daniel Clowes, and Clerks II, Kevin Smith's sequel to his low-budget 1994 comedy.

Joining them in the gala section are Hoodwinked, an animated update of Little Red Riding Hood, and The Night Listener, an adaptation of the Armistead Maupin novel starring Robin Williams and Toni Colette. Le You's controversial Summer Palace, a Palme d'Or contender at Cannes, will be also screen in Edinburgh.

Among the 12 films scheduled for the British Gala strand are Snow Cake, Brothers of the Head and Colour Me Kubrick, in which John Malkovich plays the late Alan Conway, a small-time London conman who impersonated the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Eyes Wide Shut.

The festival closes with a screening of Odd Man Out, Carol Reed's classic 40s thriller starring James Mason as an IRA chief on the run.

Charlize Theron, Steven Soderbergh and Sigourney Weaver are among the guests expected at this year's event, while patron Sean Connery will host the festival's official birthday celebrations on August 19.